


i am thinking it's a sign (that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images)

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death Fix, Cousy Fix-It, F/M, Fix-It, HYDRA takeover, Parallel Universes, Pining, Post Season 5, Pre-Relationship, Slow Romance, Some Plot, not much happens in the romance area but there's some nakedness XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 16:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16245905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: Daisy ends up in a parallel universe, with bad news (Hydra won) and good news (Coulson is here).Written for the Cousy Fix-It week at johnsonandcoulson.com - prompt: MULTIVERSE/S





	i am thinking it's a sign (that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images)

She has no time to say anything to him.

To run to him and hug him or any of the million things she’d want to.

She only has time to grab him and get him out of the way because they are being shot at.

That’s when she notices, because she grabs him by his left forearm and it definitely doesn’t feel like a prosthetic. She takes a good look at him — besides the panicked _Coulson_ thoughts running through her mind one moment after the _where the hell am i?_ ones. He looks different from the last time she saw him. He looks _different_ in general. Sharper, harder. Maybe it’s just that he is unshaven, but Daisy thinks it’s more than that.

It doesn’t really matter, it’s Coulson and someone is shooting at him so Daisy takes one of them down.

She notices the uniforms. There’s only one freaking organization in the world with this very 1936 sense of fashion. _Again?_ her brain whines. She finds out she can worry about Hydra being back in her life and keep her and Coulson out of the line of fire AND figure out, instinctively that she’s not in Kansas anymore.

She forces Coulson to the ground while she takes care of the first problem.

Whatever the hell happened to send her here, to this tunnel, to this place, Daisy is grateful it hasn’t affected her powers.

This Coulson doesn’t seem to have any more idea where Daisy came from than Daisy does, but at first he is too distracted by the dudes shooting bullets at him to react.

But when Daisy quakes a second Hydra agent to get both of them to safety he looks alarmed.

“Who are you?” Coulson asks, freeing himself from her grip and stepping away from her. But before Daisy can answer he has pulled a gun on her. Not the kind of reunion Daisy had hoped for but she understands him. “Are you Hydra? We’ve heard rumors about experiments to build an army of powered individuals.”

He says “powered” like Coulson - the other Coulson - used to, back in the beginning, with certain suspicion. Daisy is not even hurt that he doesn’t know who she is, that there’s no recognition in his eyes. _He’s alive_. She has no room for any petty, selfish feeling in the face of that reality.

She looks at him, stares really long, but she’s not distracted enough that she doesn’t hear the footsteps getting closer. She and Coulson turn around at the same time.

Daisy hopes that the fact that he has seen her destroy two Hydra threats can buy her enough good will from Coulson to clear the whole thing up.

“I promise I can explain. Is there somewhere safe where we can talk?” she asks him.

Coulson winces. “Yeah, but those jerks are in between.”

Daisy pushes her hair out of her eyes, her eyes never leaving Coulson, in case she blinks and suddenly he’s not there, suddenly she loses him once more.

“We’ll have to fight them, then,” she says.

Coulson considers him. It starts to sting a bit, the way his eyes move over her like he’s solving a puzzle, but then she remembers this is the way he used to look at her when they first met, when he knew there was something more about her than meets the eye. This other Coulson has the same curiosity.

It’s three this time. Daisy wonders since when Hydra has carried freaking assault rifles like this. Coulson takes care of one of them, a clean shot, no hesitation. Daisy does what she can with the other two, but the gunfire is a bit too much. Her priority is Coulson so she covers him with her body as she quakes the two shooters, hard, against the wall, until she hears bone cracking.

She falls to the ground, breathing again.

“What the— ?” this Coulson looks like he is about to get antagonistic again, but then he stopped himself, anger draining from his face. She knows Coulson’s face very well; what she’s seeing now is, inexplicably, _guilt_. “You’re bleeding.”

Daisy looks down.

He’s right, even though with the adrenaline she’s hardly felt it.

Blood pours out of her leg with alarming speed.

Great.

She’s found him again just to bleed out in some dirty tunnel without Coulson even recognizing her.

Just perfect.

 

+++

 

She can tell him bringing her back to their base so someone can patch her up wouldn’t be the most popular decision, by the way he acts about it, almost furtive. Daisy is still not sure what’s going on in this other world but she knows enough that she doesn’t blame the other SHIELD agents for thinking Coulson irresponsible. There’s no way he would have left her behind, after she saved his life. Things might have changed, but Coulson couldn’t have changed that much.

She lost consciousness back there, but she knows that she can’t have been out more than a few minutes.

“It’s not deep,” Coulson is saying, Daisy is still too dizzy to understand what he means at first.

First she has to gather her bearings. She’s lying on some sort of very bare bones bunk, a thin mattress and a thinner blanket. She’s out of her field suit and Coulson is kneeling besides her, prodding at the gaping hole in her leg.

“I’m doing the best I can, we don’t have medical experts to spare these days,” he tells her. “Tell me if I’m hurting you.”

He sounds different, this other Coulson. But he says stuff Coulson would say. And he is taking care of her injuries, even though she is a stranger and she can tell in this universe one is not supposed to trust strangers.

“I’m fine,” she tells him. She hears her own voice very distant, like a dream. She wonders if she is in a dream. Coulson is bandaging her leg carefully, touching her and he is so close she only has to reach out her hand and touch him, make sure this is real. She doesn’t, but it takes all she’s got to stop herself.

“So, Daisy?” she hears Coulson say and it’s like being slapped. Hearing her name in that voice again.

“What?”

For a moment hope lodges itself in her chest, painfully, but then she looks up and realizes what’s going on; Coulson is looking at her ID, after going through her field suit.

“Agent Daisy Johnson from SHIELD. Is this some kind of joke?” he asks. “If anyone sees it you’re dead. Scratch that, if anyone catches you even whispering _SHIELD_ , you are dead.”

It all starts to add up and Daisy gets a pretty decent picture of what’s going on. The Hydra soldiers, their tech. Coulson’s reaction. This secret base, more like a bunker down the tunnels. She is in some kind of dystopian alternative universe, _again_. Isn’t she? With Hydra coming on top again. 

“I know every SHIELD agent, you’re not SHIELD,” Coulson accuses.

“So SHIELD is still a thing…” she mutters.

At least there’s that. Last time she did something similar SHIELD was Hydra and Hydra was SHIELD. Now it seemed that whatever SHIELD is they form part of a resistance. And Coulson with it.

Coulson watches her reaction, she can feel his gaze on her as she tries to think this through.

“Thank you for not leaving me in the tunnels,” Daisy says, realizing she hasn’t thanked him yet.

“You got shot protecting me,” he says. Then, like he regrets it, adds: “And I needed to find out if you are a spy.”

“The verdict?” she asks.

He hands her some energy bars to get back her strength.

“Sorry, we don’t have anything hot in this base,” he tells her.

Daisy sits up on the bunk, clutching her leg. She’s been shot before; it also hurts like hell in this universe. It’s kind of comforting, if she thinks about it.

“What? I don’t get your famous grilled cheese? That’s disappointing,” she jokes, without really meaning to. She feels lightheaded, and not just from the loss of blood. She feels drunk (actually, that’s the word she’s looking for) just at the sight of Coulson, yet she can’t stop staring.

“Okay. Who the hell are you?”

Daisy tells him.

She really can’t put it off much longer.

If it weren’t someone else she might be tempted to lie, make up some believable story. Her story is not believable at all. She is still figuring out what happened herself. The explosion, and how she thought she wouldn’t make it. And how she’s not sure she made it at all. If she is seeing Coulson there must be something wrong with the picture. It would be too convenient, wouldn’t it?

She can tell he doesn’t buy it either, not at first, but it’s Coulson, he keeps an open mind. She knows things, though, things no one could. Things about him. That doesn’t bode well for her “I’m not Hydra” bid and she can see him shifting and moving across the room to his gun, suspicious. But the things she knows, they’re personal. Things that, in this world, Coulson has told no one.

Daisy can tell he is creeped out by it all, but no longer suspecting she is the enemy.

“I thought the whole concept of parallel universes was just a myth,” he says, thoughtfully.

“I bet you thought the same about Thor,” she jokes.

Coulson gives her a hard glance, trying to stop himself from looking surprised this time.

“I have you at a disadvantage, I know, sorry,” Daisy says, trying for apologetic.

He paces around the tiny room.

“So I knew you in your universe?” he asks.

Daisy fiddles, touching the bandage over her leg. 

“Yeah, we were… friends,” she says, knowing that’s not accurate at all, but knowing this other Coulson wouldn’t get it. “You were my best friend, actually.”

This other Coulson looks at her with mild surprise; she knows it looks strange, if you weren’t there. And she knows a Coulson who has never met Daisy can’t imagine becoming close to someone like Daisy. There’s no way he could understand. But he looks like he understands the way Daisy talks about the Coulson in her universe in the past tense, and her tone. He doesn’t press the point, and Daisy is grateful, even though he’d have every right to press. She hopes he understands enough to be able to tell, from her voice, that he means a lot to her, and that he should trust her.

She’s not sure she can gain Phil Coulson’s trust a second time around, in these extreme circumstances. She’ll have to try.

“I guess I’ll have to trust the judgement of Phil Coulson from your universe,” he says, still sounding skeptical but admitting he has no other practical solution right now. And Coulson, any Coulson, would want to think the best of people. Daisy decides. Even a Nazi dystopia couldn’t beat that out of him. It could only soften that instinct.

Daisy touches her fingers against the flimsy material of the mattress.

“Do you think you could get me… some pants?”

“Don’t you want your suit?” he asks, pointing at her clothes neatly folded on top of a small metal desk.

She shakes her head. “The suit is not very comfortable unless I’m fighting. Are you going to fight me?”

Coulson makes an amused low noise in his throat, but there’s no smile to match it.

“I’ll see what I can do about some pants,” he tells her. “This base… we’re a bit makeshift at the moment.”

Daisy nods. She can feel people in other rooms, their vibrations. There’s a sense of urgency floating around her, Coulson doesn’t have to explain.

Being here is different from being in the Framework, where she felt a slight sickly feeling in her stomach all the time, like when you see two images superimposed but they are almost imperceptibly out of sync with each other. You could feel something was ajar.

This is not like it.

This is real.

It might not be her reality but this is real.

And, for starters, she still has her powers (her own body, she wonders what happened to the Daisy in this universe).

That is what interests Coulson the most, of course.

“I’m not a Hydra experiment, I promise,” she tells him when he asks about what she did to stop their pursuers back in the tunnels.

“No,” Coulson agrees. “But are you…?”

“An experiment?” 

Coulson nods. He’s helping her get her injured leg inside the cargo pants he’s brought her, once he found some clean clothes.

“Kind of, a long time ago,” Daisy says. “But now we’re just a slight genetic mutation.”

“We?”

“There are more people like me,” she says.

“I’ve never met more people like you,” Coulson argues.

She thinks about what that means. Whoever this universe’s Daisy is she’s obviously not any kind of player - she even asks this Coulson is he’s heard about someone called _Skye_ and nothing, blank; same with the Rising Tide itself. And Inhumans are not widely known. That means Jiaying is either dead in this universe, or she continued her isolationist mission for her people, and didn’t think of stepping up to help humans against Hydra. Either option makes something ugly twist inside Daisy’s stomach.

“How did you end up here?” Coulson asks, again in that disbelieving tone. “No, I know, _parallel universes_ , but I mean. How did it happen?”

Daisy puts on her boots without help and stands up, tentatively trying out her balance. The gunshot hurts but it hasn’t done much damage.

“I was on a mission when you found me. In my timeline the bad guys were messing with stuff they shouldn’t have messed with,” she more or less explains.

“The bad guys… Hydra.”

“No, other bad guys.”

Coulson gives her a tired smile - she feels a shiver in the back of her neck, just the idea of being able to see his smile again.

“I’m almost jealous,” he says. “You have bad guys who _aren’t_ Hydra.”

He _sounds_ jealous and Daisy feels a bit guilty; she hasn’t really been thinking about how Coulson's life must have been like in this universe, what he must have gone through. She was just so in awe, so _happy_ to see him alive and be near him. She was only thinking about herself.

“So Hydra, uh?” she asks. “How did _that_ happen?”

“They infiltrated SHIELD,” Coulson starts. “For decades they — “

Daisy cuts him off. “No, no, I know that part. But Captain America stopped them just after they revealed themselves. He dropped a big Hellicarrier on the Potomac.”

This other Coulson’s eyes go wide and Daisy can tell something very painful is happening behind those eyes she loves, and she tries to empathize and not just be grateful that she gets to see them again. 

“He was supposed to do that,” he says in a defeated tone.

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

Coulson nods, but then his expression softens.

“But from what you tell me…” he says. “There are other universes where people don’t have to live in this hell. That’s good.”

Daisy smiles, struck by a strange sense of familiarity.

That he would say that… yeah, it makes sense.

There are not “other” Coulsons, there’s only one Coulson.

 

+++

 

He shows her the rest of the bunker, a humble but important underground base. The other SHIELD agents are not happy indeed, but they seem to trust Coulson’s judgement implicitly. There is a claustrophobic, almost paranoid feeling in the air and Daisy realizes a lot of that is because of the low ceilings. The way she can tell they are deep underground.

No one is wearing a uniform; she remembers Coulson’s warning about not letting anyone see her badge. No one is wearing any uniform in the bunker, but they all look like soldiers.

Daisy doesn’t actually know anyone in here but most faces are vaguely familiar — SHIELD agents in her universe as well, whose files she had come across one time or another, sticking to her memory. The most familiar one is the short-haired woman talking to Coulson now, briefing him. Agent Noelle Walters; Daisy never got to meet her, but she remembers her death in a supposed safe house in Amsterdam. In that sense being in a different universe is a bit like being in the Framework: it’s a place full of ghosts.

The agent keeps arguing with Coulson about their situation, rather vehemently, while throwing Daisy sideways gazes. Daisy is not sure why Coulson has decided to include her in the conversation, except she guesses he doesn’t want to let her out of his sight.

“We’re sitting ducks in here,” Coulson says at one point.

“We’re sitting ducks _out there_ , sir,” Agent Walters replies. “We tried making contact but the Warrior is on the roofs again, he’s taken two of my agents.”

“The Warrior?” Daisy asks.

Walters turns to her.

“One of Hydra’s greatest assets,” she says. “He specializes in sniping us. They call him the Warrior.”

Coulson makes a tired noise. “Otherwise known as Former SHIELD Agent Grant Ward,” he says bitterly.

Daisy feels her stomach turn at the name.

“That explains things,” she mutters.

Two pairs of eyes set on her. Coulson seems like he is about to say something but he thinks better of it. He dismisses Walters.

“Come with me, Agent Johnson,” he says, grabbing Daisy by the arm and leading her to a nearly little office.

Daisy stares down at her own upper arm, Coulson’s fingers firmly wrapped around it. His touch is different, she thinks. It’s still careful, but her universe’s Coulson always hesitated to touch her.

“Sorry,” this other Coulson says when he notices staring, and he quickly lets go of her arm once they are alone.

Daisy shakes her head, not wanting him to misunderstand her reaction for repulsion, but on the other hand… how could he ever understand?

“So, I gather that you have a Grant Ward in your universe,” he says, leaning against a desk that has seen better days.

“We did,” Daisy says.

Coulson’s face lightens for a moment.

“That you place of yours is getting more and more appealing,” he tells her.

“It has its flaws too,” Daisy says. _An unbearable lack of Phil Coulsons to start with,_ she thinks.

“Daisy,” he says, and again she can’t stop her body from almost leaping at the sound of that. “I don’t know that I can help you to get back to your world any time soon.”

She nods. She wasn’t thinking about asking, she feels weird about it, because of course she should have.

“We have a problem over here,” Coulson goes on. “We got our hands on some information about Hydra. Schematics, agents’ locations, schedules. Something SHIELD agents lost their lives to get. Something that can, theoretically, land a huge blow on Hydra.”

“That sounds like the opposite of a problem to me,” Daisy says.

“The problem is we are stuck down here,” he explains. “I was trying, when you found me. I was about to be gunned down for my efforts, if you hadn’t shown up.”

“I’m sure you’d have found a way,” Daisy protests.

“No, I wouldn’t. And even if I had made it out… there are patrols on the streets and, as you heard, snipers. It’s impossible. But Daisy, this information, I have to get it to the Director of SHIELD.”

“Fury?” she risks a guess.

“Yeah,” Coulson replies and then he shakes his head in disbelief. He stands up from his chair. “Getting there… I’m not sure I can do that without getting killed.”

Daisy looks at him and it takes a moment to dawn on her, what he’s asking.

“You need a bodyguard,” she says.

“I need a bodyguard,” he repeats.

“Okay,” she says.

“If you do this for SHIELD, we’ll help you find a way to get back home, I promise you.”

Daisy smiles.

“Coulson, I already said _yes_ , you don’t need to go on with the sales pitch.”

She means to tease him, but he frowns.

“What’s wrong?”

“The way you say my name,” Coulson tells her, with a expression half troubled half in awe. “For a moment it sounded familiar. Like I’d heard it before today.”

Uh, Daisy thinks. How about that?

 

+++

 

She understands this world a bit better, when they get to the streets.

The extent of Hydra’s grip on this world.

It’s not like the Framework, a _1984_ vibe with all those huge ads and people looking paranoid on the streets. It’s not about big Hydra flags. This place looks more like a war zone.

Finally she can tell she is still in DC, for all her universe-hopping. She doesn’t know anything about the science of it, but it makes sense. She travelled through parallel worlds, she didn’t really changed her relative place. But this DC is a city razed almost to the ground. 

The tunnels were easy enough — still guarded, but this time they had the advantage of knowing what to expect. Two Hydra agents Coulson unceremoniously took care off. If there were witnesses Hydra would know the bunker is there, the whole base compromised. Daisy agreed, she wasn’t going to lose sleep over a couple of dead NeoNazis, in any universe.

The streets were something different. For all that they feel abandoned Coulson warns her of the complex surveillance network Hydra has built. Washington was the center of dissent, even after the Triskelion fell. It still is, which is why Hydra’s presence is much more obvious here. One of their Hellicarriers constantly casting a moving shadow on the pavements.

“I should have said something in the bunker, but I didn’t want anyone hearing,” he says, while they make it through a bombed out building. “I have a request, in case this mission is not successful.”

“It will be successful,” Daisy tells him. She thinks that’s something Coulson would say to her, to encourage her.

Coulson waits a bit, he seems a bit surprised by her, by everything she does. It’s not because she comes from such an unthinkable place; the Coulson in her world sometimes looked at her like that too.

“It doesn’t matter, I need you to promise me.”

“What?” she asks.

“You won’t let Hydra take me alive,” he tells her.

That’s not a promise Daisy can really fulfill but by the way Coulson is looking at her, fierce and resolved, she knows she has to at least lie to him.

“Okay,” she says. “Sure.”

Daisy thinks it’s a strange request; it was proven that the Coulson in her universe would have never reveal SHIELD secrets, not even under torture, so there’s no way this hardened up, gruff version of Coulson should worry about it.

She lets it go, but it still bothers her.

They advance quickly at first, even with her bad leg, mainly because she’s very good at spotting Hydra agents from a great distance. Well, spotting is not the words, she tells Coulson as she explains how her powers worked, how she’s developed a way of reading other people’s vibrations so she could be aware of their presence. Coulson thinks it’s “neat” and Daisy almost laughs at the juxtaposition of the word and the grim reality they are making their way through.

It still takes them hours, because Hydra has control stops in every major road, so they have to use backstreets instead. It gives Daisy time to explain a bit more about her world, and why she knows so much about Coulson. He seems baffled by it, by how much the other universe’s version of him seemed to trust this total stranger. Even if she could explain _that_ (and she never had an explanation for how much Coulson always valued her, it always seemed like a strange gift the world gave her), she doesn’t have time, because they end up cornered between two Hydra patrols and they need to take out at least one to be able to advance.

This other Coulson’s questions are extinguished when Daisy saves his life again.

 

+++

 

Once they get to headquarters Daisy decides to do a little digging, about what happened to the version of herself in this other universe. But these people are not idiots and there’s no way they’d let her near a computer unsupervised.

Coulson does it for her. 

They huddle in a small room full of computers. Daisy checks they are taking enough precautions, but even if she were to find a flaw in security she doubts SHIELD would trust her to fix it herself. No one in this world knows her, and Coulson can only vouch for what he’s seen in the last ten hours.

“How’s the wound?” Coulson asks.

“Someone gave me something,” Daisy tells him. “I don’t know what it is but it’s freaking great.”

Coulson nods and keeps searching all their files with the specifications Daisy has given him, looking for a trace of her own existence. 

“Nothing,” he says, once they have searched for all her aliases, for the people she knew in the Rising Tide — there’s no Rising Tide in this world, which, yeah, it makes sense — and no record of her in St Agnes either.

It’s like she’s never existed.

“Maybe someone erased the records,” she says, since it had happened in her universe as well. “If you let me try…”

“You’re not supposed to touch our computers, you’re a risk,” Coulson tells her, but then he smiles a bit and hands her the keyboard.

Daisy wishes she had her laptop with her, all her software. It’s hard to do this from scratch, in a computer she doesn’t know. It takes a bit, because she goes slowly and carefully. Hydra have a good alarm system and any poking could set them off. Coulson watches her work through it all, patient.

“How would you be able to tell, if I were sabotaging your system instead?” she taunts him, because he’s been idiotically trusting here.

He doesn’t seem too concerned.

“It’s true I know nothing about computers,” he admits. “But I like to think I know people. And I’d be able to tell if you were hiding something.”

He sounds cocky, and quite different from his apocalyptic grimness in the bunker and on the streets. Maybe being able to deliver all the date on Hydra has taken a load off his shoulders. He sounds different, and Daisy always liked it when Coulson was a bit cocky.

As for her work, no luck either.

“It’s true, I just don’t exist here,” she says. “Unless…”

She goes back to the regular database.

“Who is Cal Johnson?” Coulson asks when he sees what she’s doing.

“A connection, hopefully,” Daisy says.

Her father, unlike, it’s easy to find. He lives in Milwaukee. He has his practice. Married, with two sons. According to his records he has never visited China.

“I’m sorry,” Coulson tells her, with that almost-soft voice, that is almost like the Coulson she knew.

She looks up and he’s there, nothing has changed. The facial hair, the unfamiliar scars. It doesn’t matter, she is still looking at Coulson.

Eventually Fury summons them to his office.

Daisy leaves it to Coulson to explain who she is, it’ll be better if it comes from him.

Fury doesn’t buy her story either, but he admits he has seen “enough bizarre crap” that it would be illogical to rule _parallel universes_ out just because. He doesn’t trust Daisy, that he makes clear. But he doesn’t trust her in a cell either, and he prefers Coulson around her at all times.

Coulson shows him the information he’s brought from the bunker. 

It’s a drop of hope in a sea of horror, at least. Maps and schedules, specifications on weapons, secret projects (the rumors were true, Hydra _is_ experimenting on humans to develop their own super soldiers since, with the Avengers gone, the good guys don’t have that advantage anymore), a treasure trove of chances to hurt Hydra really badly.

Daisy is in on the meeting, Coulson once again unwilling to let her out of his sight. That’s just fine with her. She wants to help, if she can.

No one here is wearing a uniform either, much less Fury. But he’s still Director Fury, and he is still admirable and imposing even wearing tracksuit pants and a gray winter sweater.

“One thing I’ve wondered about this universe…” Daisy starts, she can’t help herself, because it’s been gnawing at her since she’s been in Fury’s presence. “How did you find out about Project Tahiti if I wasn’t there?” she asks Coulson.

Coulson and Fury exchange an alarmed look. Daisy is glad she has saved Coulson’s life like four times by now, or they’d probably lock her up for being a Hydra spy just for saying that. That’s what their faces are saying right now.

“Daisy… how do you know about that?” Coulson asks, stepping back from her, like he’s trying to make his own body smaller, like he is feeling exposed. She didn’t mean to do that to him.

“Did you find the Guest House?” she asks. It makes no sense, Hydra used her to get Coulson to lead them to the Guest House. Without her… what did they use?

“The Guest House?” Coulson repeats. He obviously has no idea what she is talking about.

Fury lets out an audible sigh.

“No, he didn’t find it,” he tells Daisy, sounding exhausted. “I had it destroyed, when DC fell, before Hydra could get their hands on the tech.”

“But you had to tell him everything, in case Hydra got their hands _on him_.”

Coulson nods at her, confirming.

Then something clicks.

“That’s what’s been bugging me,” Daisy says. “That’s why you told me I couldn’t let Hydra take you alive.”

The implications of that request now dawn on her. Horribly. She wants to cry, or probably slap Coulson.

Fury seems to be of the same mind.

“You’re still going on about that?” he demands of Coulson, clearly agitated.

“I have to take responsibility, sir,” Coulson replies.

“We’ve been over this,” Fury says. Suddenly Daisy feels like she’s intruding in a private conversation. “Your body is not some weapon.”

“That is exactly what it is!” Coulson says. Then softer: “That’s what you made it into.”

“Well, it _worked_.”

“Well, I didn’t ask for it.”

“Hey,” Daisy cuts him, like possessed, her body between him and Fury. “Don’t blame the Director for that. He just couldn’t let you go.”

Fury stares at her like she’s grown a second head and yeah, she’s talking about herself a bit here, but she always got it, what Fury did. She would have done the same. She tried to do the same.

Coulson looks at both of them and then drops his head a bit.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he tells Fury. “You know I appreciate what you did for me.”

They stare at each other for a moment, with complicated affection, Daisy trying to make herself invisible. 

Finally Fury breaks the stare, smirking a bit.

“Don’t be too appreciative too soon, Agent Coulson,” he says. “Not until we’ve figured out this mess.”

He points to the screens once more. 

“Okay, I don’t know much about this whole situation but I’m good at finding exploits,” Daisy says, pointing out at an obvious one right in the middle of downtown. “You guys have to take out this tower.”

“That’s the general consensus,” Fury tells her, a bit sardonic.

“What’s stopping us?” Coulson asks.

“An asshole sniper in sector 4,” Fury explains.

And he’s right, there’s no way of making for the tower without going through the security challenge of that area. Daisy tries to find an alternative route for them but there is none.

“If we take down the Tower like Daisy says, we’d get at least half an hour where our agents could move position, wherever we want, in the city, save everyone whose position has been compromised,” Coulson says, fired up by the idea. Daisy likes seeing him like this, all righteous and ready for a fight. And she stares. Coulson catches her, and he doesn’t seem to mind.

“We still have to deal with the problem in sector 4,” Fury reminds them.

Daisy snorts.

“ _Ward_?” she says. Fury and Coulson narrow their eyes at her. “I’m not calling him _the Warrior_ or whatever, it’s stupid.”

“Call him whatever you want, he’s taken out our last two informers,” Fury reminds her. “I can’t move my team through the area like this.”

“I can take care of Ward,” she says.

“Aren’t you supposed to go back to your universe?” Fury asks.

She shrugs. Everybody just assumed that was the plan, but she hasn’t really thought about it. Or even if it’s possible.

“I can do that afterwards.”

Fury looks unconvinced.

The frustrating thing about this universe is that no one really knows what she can do. She used to resent her fame - or rather her _infame_? - back in her own world, but now she can see how it could cut the lengths of conversations by half. She can hardly believe it, but she misses Quake.

This time Coulson seems to get behind her, though.

“I’ll go with her,” he tells Fury. “It’s time we take Ward out.”

“Remember the last time you went toe to toe with him — “

“It’s time,” Coulson insists, almost gritting his teeth. There is something hard in his voice, something very _unlike Coulson_ , and Daisy doesn’t want to know what happened between him and Ward in this universe as well.

 

+++

 

Everything has to be done quickly; there’s no point in being cautious, not with every minute of Hydra in power could mean more people suffer, die.

A big difference between her SHIELD and this dystopia SHIELD, she discovers when she and Coulson go to prep for the mission, is the unisex showers. How very _Starship Troopers_ of them. She guesses it’s faster this way, and much safer, and a dark, gritty world like this one doesn’t leave much room for modesty anymore. And it’s fine, she’s okay with that, it’s just that crazy as her day has been so far (and she can’t believe she’s not been 24 hours in this universe yet) she never expected that craziness to include seeing Coulson naked — or Coulson seeing her naked.

She’s not sure which part is more awkward.

He notices her discomfort.

“Sorry, I forgot…” he starts. “It took me a bit to get used to, too. I can go if it makes you too— “

“No, it’s okay,” Daisy tells him, turning to her side a bit. Deciding seeing Coulson naked it’s more awkward than the other way around. “It’s fine, it’s just… you’ve shaved.”

She chuckles. Who the hell shaves before showering?

Coulson touches his face under the shower, like he’s checking. He really is comfortable with Daisy seeing his body. She has another one of these moments, these sudden revelations she’s been having in waves since falling into this world. _Coulson’s alive_. This Coulson, sure. But does it matter which one? She’s found a Coulson who is alive and that simple realization is too big and painful in her chest and she feels like she could explode from it and Coulson is in front of her and she can see his dick and _he’s alive_.

“I would shave every day, if I could,” he tells her, sounding wistful.

Daisy tilts her head, regarding him with fondness — neat and clean-shaven Phil Coulson who had to learn hardness and dirt for the Nazi apocalypse. He used to insist that she’d use a coaster for a freaking water bottle. She feels for him. And still, he hasn’t really changed.

“You look so much like him now, that’s all,” Daisy says, letting the hot water pour over her body. It’s almost not awkward anymore. Or rather, maybe it’s not so bad, Coulson seeing her naked.

“Your Coulson?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says. It must be strange for him as well, obviously knowing what she isn’t saying. “How did you get that one?”

She points at his neck. She can’t exactly say for the rest of scars and burns — it’s not like she ever saw _her_ Coulson naked like this — but the scar on his neck is definitely something unique to this Coulson. It’s barely visible, a thin milk-white line under his throat.

“It was the W— it was Ward,” he tells her. “He had some piano wire. I was quick enough. Barely.”

Daisy realizes she should probably stop staring at it, or his body in general.

Piano wire.

Yeah, that sounds familiar too.

“Well, Ward did like strangulations,” she comments, running her fingers through her damp hair, closing her eyes.

“Ward likes any kind of murder,” Coulson mutters. She wonders just how many people Ward was able to take down, when Hydra came out of the shadows and into the light. Without Daisy to raise the alarm like in her universe, how many SHIELD agents fell because they never saw him coming. Is that why Coulson has his scar? Because he trusted Ward too much? Again?

He finishes showering and Daisy follows him into the lockers. This time there are clothes, which means she can concentrate better.

“Hey,” she tells Coulson, feeling his doubts grow. “If it helps, in my universe, the one who was able to finally stop Ward… well, it was you.”

Coulson looks at her and for the first time since she found him in this other universe he looks like he doesn’t know whether she’s lying or not.

 

+++

 

Daisy is reluctant to take the last step in the preparations, once they are on site. Her hands skim over the soft skin of Coulson’s wrist; she hasn’t really given herself permission before, but she can hardly help it now. Not when her fingertips grace his pulse. She thought she was used to the shock of this universe already. She didn’t think it would affect her so much.

 _He’s alive_ , she thinks again, spiralling in that thought, pressing her thumb against the throbbing vein.

Of course he’s alive, she’s just an idiot. She has spent the last twenty hours or so never leaving his presence. Of course this Coulson is alive. She doesn’t need to take his pulse to know it. 

To his credit he doesn’t say anything, it’s almost as if he is purposely letting Daisy touch him like this, gingerly, pathetically, over the excuse of putting some handcuffs on him.

“Do you think this plan will work?” she asks, just to fill the silence. It’s a foolish question.

Coulson doesn’t act like she is a fool, though.

“It will,” he simply says. “If I know one thing about Ward is that he would want to be the one to execute me.”

Some things never change, uh? Daisy thinks idly, and then she hopes that’s really true.

She finishes with the handcuffs, taking care that Coulson doesn’t get hurt. It feels like her carefulness is so out of place, when she notices the many little scars on his hands and arms. She doubts this Coulson is used to softness anymore.

“Well, then it’s a good thing that I technically don’t exist in this universe, and Hydra can’t recognize me,” she says, going over their plan to pretend Daisy is a Hydra sympathizer bringing a known SHIELD terrorist to Ward’s door, for a change to join his elite squad. 

Daisy’s non-existence is bound to raise suspicions among the technically all-powerful Hydra but they are both banking on Ward’s messed up priorities. He’s too emotional, Daisy had already told this Coulson. He’ll take the bait.

“I’m sorry, it must be very difficult,” Coulson says, as they already make their way through the shadows of the alleyway, towards the Hydra building. “Knowing that you were never born in this universe.”

Daisy shrugs. The thing she regrets the most about that is that there was never a Daisy in this universe who could meet this other Coulson. But she can’t tell this to Coulson.

“It’s fine,” she says. 

“Are you ready?” he asks.

She understands why he is eager to get this done.

And it’s not like she is not always in the mood to kick some Hydra ass but...

“It’s just… don’t take any unnecessary risks, okay?”

As soon as she says it she realizes how ridiculous her plea sounds, given the circumstances. Coulson realizes too, and gives her a pitying glance. 

“You universe must be really different,” he comments, but without malice.

He’s also smiling a bit at her, with amusement, and perhaps some budding fondness. Daisy wants to believe that whatever Coulson felt for her in her universe was strong enough to maybe, just maybe, touch other versions of himself throughout their parallel existences. Maybe it’s too romantic an idea, but Daisy doesn’t care. The only reason she doesn’t call what she _still_ feels for Coulson — any Coulson — love is because that’s too small a word.

“I’m sorry you had to get involved in all this,” he says all of the sudden, like he has forgotten it was Daisy who proposed they’d go after Ward.

“I wasn’t there when Ward got taken down in my universe,” she tells Coulson. “I wouldn’t want to miss it a second time.”

 

+++

 

And it’s not like it isn’t super satisfying — it is — watching a monster like Ward die. Coulson even let her do the honors (though it wasn’t so much a conscious decision as a matter of who got to him first). But they don’t have time to celebrate properly, not when they have a whole building full of Hydra agents about to come through the door and punish them for taking out their own particular Rudolf Hess.

“It’s a good thing I can make a whole in this wall then,” Daisy says, urging Coulson to her side, towards the window.

“What are you talking about? We’re on an tenth floor.”

“Something I haven’t told you about my powers…” Daisy raises her hand and pushes the concrete of the wall apart little by little, until she’s made a hole big enough for her and Coulson. She walks closer, looking down at the ground. It’s a long, long fall. She turns towards Coulson, trying not to smirk. “It’s a good thing that I can fly.”

He’s deciding whether to believe her or not when the first batch of Hydra agents reach the door, and start figuring out a way to kick it down.

“Come on,” Daisy gestures. “If you just hold on to me it will be fine, I’ll get you to safety.”

Coulson hesitates.

Truth be told Daisy has never done this, not from such great heights, not with someone else. But her powers are ever evolving and she knows, _she knows_ , that if it’s to protect Coulson her body will find a way.

“Trust me,” she tells him.

Coulson walks to her, wrapping one arm around her neck, and using the other to hold on to her shoulder.

“Just answer me this,” he says at the last moment. “The Coulson in your universe… would he have trusted you on this?”

This time she doesn’t have to lie at all, or even search for the answer. She knows.

“He would have,” she tells this other Coulson. “In a heartbeat.”

He nods.

And the next moment they are flying.

 

+++

 

Afterwards they retreat to the bunker, rather than headquarters — still too risky, specialy now that they have raised all the alarms. They wait word from Fury. If SHIELD takes down the Tower, they might have to relocate soon.

Everybody down here is ready to move. But everybody is celebrating as well. Not too overtly, not recklessly, but Daisy can tell they haven’t had a win like this in a long time. It fills her with unexpected warmth, the fact that she contributed to it a bit. Likewise she hasn’t had a win like this in a long time.

Coulson sits next to her, bringing her a bowl of hot soup.

“I’m sorry it’s not grilled cheese,” he tells her, knowingly. “But I thought you could use something warm.”

“Thanks,” she says. She takes one spoonful. It’s clearly from a can, but it doesn’t matter. She thinks about Coulson taking a moment among the chaos of the day to heat it up for her and it’s the most delicious meal she’s ever tasted. She notices his spirits have gone down a bit. “What’s wrong?”

Coulson hesitates to answer, he’s looking out at the other agents, passing some emergency beer between them.

“We cut an important head off the monster today and that’s good but…” he frowns. “Hydra, it’s too big. This is only a little crack on their wall. Fury would need an army.”

Daisy shrugs. “I can get Fury an army,” she tells him.

Coulson arches his eyebrow.

“But we are going to have to raid an old SHIELD warehouse, and we are going to have to find a few people, I’ll write you a list,” she says, thinking _not Lincoln_ , she doesn’t want to know what happened to him in this universe, and even if he were alive Daisy knows he never wanted to be part of the fight, anyway, he ended up resenting his Inhumanity. She’d better leave him alone. “Oh, and we’re going to have to get to Puerto Rico.”

“Puerto Rico?”

“Yeah.”

For a moment it seems that Coulson is about to protest some more but he doesn’t, he gives her an amused look.

“Okay. Sounds good. I’ll talk to Fury,” he says.

She nods.

At the very least she can tell he’s feeling more cheered upnow.

They sit in silence like that for a while, until Coulson’s stomach begins to growl. He blushes a bit, imperceptibly but to Daisy, just like the other Coulson would have done.

“Here,” Daisy offers to share the soup.

He bows his head, grateful.

“I can see why he liked you so much,” he says.

“Who?”

“The Coulson in your universe,” he replies.

Now it’s Daisy’s turn to blush a bit. She looks away, watching the other agents chat and drink.

“When this is over… you think you’ll find a way to go back to your universe?” Coulson asks her.

She turns to look at him.

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Honestly? I don’t know if I want to.”

“Why would you say that? This world is terrible,” Coulson says, with a bit of grim humor.

 _Yeah but it has you in it_ , she thinks.

Would she trade a life lived in peace for a chance to be with Coulson again?

Yes, in a heartbeat.

She can’t tell him that.

(But she’s not entirely hopeless that won’t change, one day)

“People here could use my help,” she says.

He looks at her for a moment. Like he can tell she’s lying, hiding something. Coulson could always tell. He could always tell what she meant behind other words. But he never pressed her to say the real ones. He always waited until she was ready.

And there are no other Coulsons.

Just Coulson.

“Yes, we could,” he says. “I could.”


End file.
